Disclose electoral bonds' details by tomorrow: SC reprimands SBI
The Supreme Court (SC) pulled up the State Bank of India (SBI) on Monday for not complying with its order and missing the March 6 deadline for disclosing electoral bond donor details to the Election Commission. It also dismissed the SBI's plea seeking an extension until June 30 to disclose details of electoral bonds purchased since April 12, 2019. "In the last 26 days, what steps have you taken? Your application is silent on that," the court asked the SBI.
Why does this story matter?
The SC's comments came while it was hearing a plea from the bank seeking more time to file information on electoral bonds. While the apex top court gave SBI until March 6 to file the details regarding the matter, the bank requested an extension until June 30. In its February 15 ruling, the court called the scheme introduced in 2017 unconstitutional and a violation of the right to information.
SC asks SBI to disclose details on Tuesday
Rejecting the SBI's plea seeking an extension, the top court set Tuesday (March 12) as the deadline to disclose the details of the electoral bonds. Chief Justice DY Chandrachud pointed out that the court's directives did not require the bank to perform a "matching exercise" but simply to release the information. "The SBI has to just open the sealed cover, collate details, and give information to the Election Commission," it added.
SC asks EC to publish details by Friday
Senior advocate Harish Salve, representing the SBI, claimed that the bank followed a standard operating procedure to store information on the electoral bond scheme outside the core banking system. "We are trying to collate the information, and we are having to reverse the entire process. We, as a bank, were told that this was supposed to be a secret," Salve said. The SC has also asked the EC to publish the details on its official website by 5:00pm on Friday.
Know about electoral bonds scheme
Electoral bonds authorize anonymous Indian citizens or corporations to donate money to political parties. Notably, these bonds can be purchased at approved SBI offices in multiples of Rs. 1,000, Rs. 10,000, Rs. 1 lakh, Rs. 10 lakh, and Rs. 1 crore. The donor could hand these bonds to a party or parties and can be cashed in within 15 days. The scheme ensured that the contributor's identity remained anonymous.
